Currently, the fabrication of VFETs utilize a gate first fabrication technique. Gate first fabrication techniques refer to a situation where the gate is patterned prior to the annealing step used to activate the source and drain. However, in gate last techniques, a dummy gate is used to occupy the gate space during the annealing process and a replacement metal gate is inserted into the dummy gate area after the anneal. The gate last technique and the use of replacement metal gates avoids the difficult thermal issues normally encountered with use of the gate first technique.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a self-aligned replacement metal gate method and structure for forming self-aligned replacement metal gates for vertical field effect transistors to provide desired thermal characteristics and effective area scaling.